Today is runoff election day in Georgia’s capital city and the mayoral race pits City Council President Felicia Moore against at-large City Councilman Andre Dickens. In the Nov. 2nd election, Moore received 40.8 percent support, with heavy support from Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhoods. And early voting indicates that Moore compiled an edge in the early voting that concluded last Wednesday.
However, every pundit agrees that turnout is the key to victory.
As a protege of former Mayor Shirley Franklin, Dickens can be considered the traditional black “machine candidate” who must not be underestimated. One commentator, left-wing Atlanta Progressive News editor Matthew Cardinale, says Dickens “is just a new iteration from an earlier branch of the same tree from which Franklin begot Reed: Reed was Franklin’s campaign manager and was supported by the same airport and developer interests. That political machine, which has governed Atlanta since the first election of Maynard Jackson in 1974, is essentially the marriage of Atlanta’s black political leadership and Atlanta’s business community.”
This is an analysis that many on the political right or center would probably agree with.
Moore, once the District 9 Councilwoman, is a longtime maverick and certainly not part of any “machine.” She was practically alone on the Council over the years in fighting former Mayor Kasim Reed when it came to issues ranging from corruption to transparency. She also has clashed with outgoing Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, especially over her trying to close the city jail and for not supporting due process for police officers.
That was then, and this is now. Rising violent crime and public safety are now a major voter concern. In this campaign, Moore especially hits Dickens for his Council vote to defund the police, legislation which failed by just a one vote margin.
Yet various 2017 Bottoms and 2021 Reed supporters, including incumbent Council members who have supported the Reed and Bottoms agendas, are supporting Dickens. And the Dickens campaign has outspent Moore, especially in the area of television ads.
In any event, in a low turnout runoff such as this, every vote will indeed count.
